


Amortentia

by im_pie_la



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Mild Angst, Miscommunication
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-08 12:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15243198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_pie_la/pseuds/im_pie_la
Summary: If she was going to say anything else about the potion it was drowned out by the door hitting the mouldy wall, followed by a long sniff."Ugh, the potion smells like Potter."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another story carried over from fanfiction.net. More chapters are on the way!  
> Thanks for reading and please leave kudos/comments!

The dungeon was dark and lit in a sickly green. Snape paced between the aisles of students, while a cauldron of sweet-smelling potion bubbled on his desk. 

"That's Amortentia, its the most powerful love potion." Hermione spoke in a hushed but confident voice in the silence of the 

"And how does it work?" Snape deadpanned.

"It smells differently to each person, according to what or who-"

If she was going to say anything else about the potion it was drowned out by the door hitting the mouldy wall, followed by a long sniff.

"Ugh, the potion smells like Potter." Draco sneered, standing in the doorway.

Harry froze in his seat, staring at Draco.

"What? Did I hurt your feelings?"

"Attracts them." Hermione finished, eyeing Draco warily.

Draco went paler than usual, looking sickly in the green glow.

"Amortentia?" He almost whispered.

Hermione nodded. Ron was looking more and more grossed out, looking to be at the point of puking.

Harry swallowed. "Something to tell us, Malfoy?"


	2. Chapter 2

Malfoy had not said anything in response to anyone, but had shut the door behind him in a satisfyingly humiliated way and sat down with everyone staring at him.   
Even after Snape cleared his throat and tried to continue the lesson, Harry found himself staring at the back of Draco’s head in shock, wondering what the hell had just happened.   
“If you wish to start concentrating on my lesson instead of Mr Malfoy’s head, Potter, that would be very kind to us all.” Snape told him, with an unpleasant tone to his voice. Draco darted a look back at him, but turned away even quicker. Harry’s cheeks went red and he stared at his desk.   
“Sorry sir.” He muttered. Snape sniffed and moved on with his monologue, but Harry had already zoned out, wondering what exactly Draco had meant when he walked in. 

XXX 

 

“Next lesson you will be trying to recreate the potion yourselves. In the meantime, study pages 196 to 197 and complete all questions.” Snape kept talking, while the students tried to pack away their books and quills without him noticing. 

“You may leave.” He said finally and the students stood. 

Harry leapt to his feet, intending to march over to Draco and confront him about his… entrance to the lesson, but Draco was faster- launching himself out of his seat and hurrying to the door with barely a look back at his friends or Harry.

Harry left Hermione and Ron behind and followed Draco out of the door before any other students.   
“Draco!” He called in the nearly empty corridor. The other boy around with wide eyes, and Harry couldn’t mistake the fear in them. “Draco, you coward, talk to me.” 

Draco stopped, and Harry was shocked to think it had worked. Then part of the wall slid away and Draco ducked into the Slytherin common room.   
Harry sighed, hearing his classmates clatter out of the classroom and sighed again, louder. 

Hermione appeared at his elbow, most probably wondering why Harry was staring an empty patch of hallway. 

“Did you talk to him?” She asked, and Harry shook his head, turning away. Ron was loping up the corridor towards them. He still looked a bit green and Harry knew it wasn’t because of the terrible lightening. 

Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle walked past, obviously on their way to the Slytherin common room too. All three gave Harry a glare but he didn’t care. He was already worried about one Slytherin today, he didn’t need to be concerned over four of them. 

“Did I go loopy on the fumes in there or did Draco just admit to liking you?” Ron asked as they caught up to him and began walking. Hermione gave him a sympathetic look.   
“That did just happen.” She turned to Harry as if to get his opinion but Harry was lost in thought. 

Draco liked him? The same Draco who tripped him in halls, who laughed at him at every opportunity, who mocked him and did his best to beat him at everything and anything?   
Harry tried to muster up some form of disgust but he found he couldn’t. He… He almost liked the idea of Draco liking him, of not being rivals but rather friends. Rather… more.   
He stopped that train of thought immediately, wondering if this was maybe a joke on him by Draco. This was just what Draco would want- Harry confused and even confessing his crush (it was hardly even a crush. He admired Draco’s skill, that was all. He was confusing want for friendship for want for a relationship) to Draco, just to be laughed at and for the whole school to mock him. 

“Harry?” Hermione was saying and Ron waved a hand in front of his face. 

Harry shook his head and focused on his friends. “What was that?” 

“I said we should head to the dining hall, unless you want to go back to the common room?” Hermione repeated. Her voice had a tinge of pity in it and Harry tried to shake off what had happened in the lesson in favour of regaining some normalcy. 

“Dining hall’s fine.” He told her and tuned into what Ron was saying.   
“I am craving pancake, all I could smell that whole lesson was just pancakes. Did you hear my stomach rumbling?”   
Harry snorted, at Ron’s monologue and cast a look at Hermione who had a similar smile on her face. 

“I was a bit distracted, Ron.” Harry said and Ron gave him a rueful half-smile.

“What did the potion smell for you Harry?” Hermione asked, and Harry had a feeling she had been aching to ask that for the whole lesson.   
“Treacle tart, broomstick and shampoo.” 

“What shampoo?” Hermione asked in a knowing tone just as Ron went, “Broomstick?” in an incredulous voice.   
Harry knew he’d already said too much, especially with the shampoo. He was sure Hermione was making connections- no perfume for a girl?  
The smell was closer to cologne but he was sure that Hermione wouldn’t let it go if he said so. 

“Yeah, you know me. I love hygiene.” Harry tried to deter Hermione in the worst way possible and turned to Ron. “It’s like the wood of a broomstick handle.”   
Ron nodded and pulled the conversation away from the Potions lesson while they sat down and Ron ate his fill of pancakes. 

Harry silently noticed Hermione’s thoughtful silence throughout their meal but, more keenly, he realised that Draco had never showed up to lunch.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco did not appear for dinner that night, nor breakfast the next day. 

It was only in Potions- Harry’s fifth lesson that day- that Harry saw Draco. He met the boy’s eyes for a second before he pretended he hadn’t been looking at all. 

“Before you all sit down,” Snape said in his flat voice to the already seated students. “You will be working in partners for this experiment.” 

Ron looked at Hermione immediately. He wanted to pass this class. That was all. Harry smiled at Neville; their ‘skills’ in Potions were okay when put together. 

“I will choose the partners for you.” Snape finished and everyone quickly stifled their groans. 

“Weasley and Longbottom. Hermione and Vance. Potter and Malfoy.” Snape read out and Harry winced. 

This lesson might actually be worse than yesterday’s. 

Everyone changed seats to be with their partner and Harry shuffled over to Draco, who wasn’t even looking at him but was instead staring outraged at the professor.   
“Sir! You can’t expect me to work with him?” Draco protested. The offense Harry felt at the comment was washed away by the knowledge that he was Draco’s amortentia. 

Snape swept his way to their desk, leaning down in front of Draco in a way that made Harry cringe even though Snape wasn’t even near him. 

“Consider it punishment for being late and interrupting my lesson in such a way yesterday.” Snape told Draco in a mutter that was somehow broadcast to the whole class.   
Snape left in a swirl of robes and Draco turned to the cauldron in front of them silently. 

“Punishment?” Harry muttered under his breath, flicking through the textbook with more force than necessary. He saw Draco look sideways at him, and the flush across the other boy’s pale cheeks. 

“Let’s just get this over with.” Draco replied like they were doing some awful task, and not just chopping some leaves up for a potion. 

“Right. You cut the roots, I’ll get the wormwood ready.” Harry directed Draco, steadfastly ignoring the wide eyes of his partner. After a moment, Draco turned to the ingredients and did as he was told. 

They worked in silence before Draco looked over at Harry again, who immediately fumbled with his knife under his gaze. 

“You need to cut them into smaller places so we can get all the juice for the infusion.” Draco said, with a hint of his old mocking sneer.   
Harry grit his teeth and made an effort to slice it even smaller without cutting his fingers off. 

“That’s better.” Draco added, and Harry stopped again, in surprise at the… compliment? before trying to pretend like he hadn’t. If he didn't know better, he would think Draco was trying to be civil with him.   
Draco focused on his own task again allowing Harry to breathe easy again. 

XXX

After twenty minutes they had finally finished preparing the ingredients and had to let the whole thing stew in the cauldron for five minutes. Harry sat back, looking around to see Ron and Hermione still engrossed with their partners and potions. 

He turned to look at Draco, resignedly. 

“So, about yesterday-“ he started, wanting at least some answers. He saw Draco’s jaw clench. 

“That was a pretty good prank. How long were you behind that door for?” This was the only explanation right?  
“A prank?” Draco repeated. His eyes widened just a fraction. “Yes, yes. I knew we were doing amortentia. You believed me though, didn’t you? Did the Greatest Wizard of All Time actually think I liked him?” 

He gave Harry a sneer that made the smaller boy grimace and turn away with a roll of his eyes. Of course it was just a prank. 

“Good one Malfoy.” He muttered, but it sounded hollow even to him. 

He couldn’t stop a disappointed feeling welling up in him, and he pointedly refused to even look at Draco. 

When the other boy finally spoke, Harry had managed to convince himself that he didn’t like Draco. He was perfectly happy with their rivalry.   
“It’s finished.” Draco announced, inhaling the smoke that spiralled up from their cauldron. 

Harry stood next to him, peering at the shimmering potion. “I can’t smell anything. Did we do it right?”   
“Of course, I made it.” Draco smirked. Harry sniffed the potion. 

“Maybe If you didn’t drown yourself in cologne this morning I could smell something.” 

“Shut up Potter. You don’t smell much better.” Draco spat. 

At the sound of their bickering, Snape made his way over, and looked at their potion with a distasteful look on his face. 

“It seems you haven’t managed to completely fail this one, Potter. Well done Malfoy.” He told them before moving unhurriedly towards Neville and Ron, whose potion was dark and bubbling thickly.   
Draco gave Harry a pointed smirk. “No thanks to you, Potter.” 

Harry realised with a cold shock that he had just confessed that Draco’s cologne was his amortentia but he hoped that the other boy was too busy gloating to remember.   
Maybe they could just forget about the prank yesterday and go on as rivals? The last thing Harry needed was a crush on his enemy.


	4. Chapter 4

“Pansy!” Draco groaned, covering his face with his hands. They had the best seat in front of the fire, having intimidated several second-years out of their armchairs. “He thinks it was a prank!” 

The Slytherin common room was vastly different to the slimy halls outside. It was dry and warm, and had overstuffed armchairs and had fireplaces where green flames flickered. Across one wall was thick glass, giving a view of under the lake. When it was dark like now, not much could be seen but on good days the Giant Squid and other magical creatures could be spotted.

Pansy flicked a page of her Potions book and sighed at Draco. It was late enough that they had the common room more or less to themselves. But that might also be because of the Malfoy and Parkinson reputation. 

“So you told him it wasn’t a prank right?” Pansy had sat through enough of Draco’s complaints about Harry that she was sick of the whole conversation. She wasn’t even sure when his spits of ‘Potter!’ turned to much softer, almost awed exclamations of ‘Potter’ or, even worse, just ‘Harry’

“No!” Draco said, scandalised at the thought. “I just agreed with him!” 

Pansy mirrored his groan, being forced to place her book down. “Why didn’t you tell him that it wasn’t a prank?” she asked slowly, cradling her chin in her hands.  
“Because I can’t tell him I have a crush on him! He’s the Boy Who Lived! He’ll hex me.” 

Pansy took a deep breath. “You know Potter can’t muster enough skill to hex you.” 

Draco stared into the fire, and Pansy inwardly marvelled at the boy who had a reputation feared enough to empty a room, to scare away anyone, to get the best treatment in many shops now pouting in front of her about some crush. He acted like some powerful wizard ready to hex anyone, but he was just some boy terrified of asking his crush out.   
She knew it was more than a crush though, having being forced to endure hours of lectures about Potter’s hair, what he had done that day, of his skill riding a broomstick. 

“That’s not even the worst part.” Draco said a moment later and Pansy bit her lip hard to stop from groaning again. 

“How could this be any worse?” She had several scenarios of how it could be worse but she had been in the lesson (just distracted from Draco and his plight) and at least no one had been attacked. 

“Potter got annoyed when we were brewing it and told me to back off because he couldn’t tell if the potion was working or not because my cologne stank.” He looked at Pansy expectantly. Pansy felt she was missing something. 

“So lay off the cologne. Believe me, no one likes cologne.” 

“Pansy. I ran out of cologne last week. My father is taking forever to send more.” 

Everything clicked into place for Pansy. 

“You’re his amortentia. That’s great!” 

The look on Draco’s face told her that this was, in fact, not great. “He thinks I hate him because I told him it was some childish prank!”   
“He thinks you hate him because you laugh at him constantly too.” She wasn’t usually one to suggest politeness or kindness to others, especially towards Harry Potter, but if Draco really wanted to court Harry mocking him was not the best way. 

Draco scowled. “You’re not helping, Pansy.” 

Pansy shrugged and picked up her book again, sliding a bookmark between the pages. She would get no studying done tonight. “You’ve properly stabbed yourself in the back here, Malfoy. I don’t think Merlin could help you now.” 

Draco sighed heavily, shuffling his feet on the hardwood floor. “What do I do, Pans?” 

Pansy looked at him with a pitying look. “Is give up on him not an option?” 

Draco gave her a distasteful scowl. Then his eyes widened and hardened into a look Pansy knew brought no good. “I could slip some Amortentia into his food. Then I would know for certain if he liked me.” 

“Draco, that’s illegal.” She remembered that nothing their families did was strictly legal. “You can’t keep the Boy Who Lived under amortentia. Just-“ She rubbed the bridge of her nose. All this frowning and worrying was going to wreck her skin and give her unCharmable wrinkles. “Just tell him that you like him and if he doesn’t like it, just play it off like you were making another joke.” 

Draco nodded, as if finally seeing sense. “I’ll take a vial of amortentia just in case.” he declared and Pansy sighed into her hands. 

Well, she couldn’t win all their arguments.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it kids, after like five chapters of miscommunication.   
> There will be more chpaters after this (at least two!)   
> Thanks for reading!

Harry was relieved that life could go back to whatever was normal for him finally. Draco had got him good with that prank, but now he couldn’t stop wondering about the Slytherin boy.

What _would_ it be like if he dated Draco? Or if they were friends? Or if they kissed?

Sure Harry’s life was normal again, but he was still caught up with Draco’s pale smooth skin, with the small curl to his lip when he was bent over his work in Potions and he got it right, his long fingers gripping the handle of a broomstick, the way his hair would fall out of his hair-wax-charm and frame his face.

Harry blinked his way out of his reverie and stared at the dining-room table in horror. He liked Draco. He _like_ liked Draco.

“What’s the matter?” Ron asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Harry leaned in, not wanting the whole table to hear them.

“I think I like-“ Harry managed before he saw Ron’s face morph into horror, eyes staring just above his head.

Harry turned with a sense of dread that only heightened when he saw Draco standing over him with crossed arms and a carefully arranged blank look on his face.

“Malfoy, what-?” Harry was cut off once again by the boy frowning even deeper.

“I need to talk to you.” He sounded very much like he would like to be anywhere else but in front of Harry.

Hermione shifted over on the bench to make space for him and Draco sneered at her. “Alone, Potter.”

Harry rose, picking up a bread roll as he went. He looked back at Ron and Hermione with a small shrug.

“We’ll come looking for you in ten minutes.” Ron promised and Draco’s scowl deepened. He turned and swept out of the hall, leaving Harry to follow.

 

XXX

 

Draco stopped when they were behind the greenhouses, and Harry made sure that no plants were inching out of the windows to attack them before he turned his attention to Draco.

“What did you need?” he asked, thinking of his wand tucked up his sleeve.

Draco was looking off to the side, foot kicking the ground in a nervous tic.

“Look, I just wanted to say sorry.” Harry was certain this was a trap now.

 “What?” He managed, eloquent as ever.

“I’m sorry.” Draco forced out like it pained him.

“For what? And why now? You’ve been awful to me and Ron and Hermione for the past seven years. Why are you just trying to be nice now?”

Draco chewed at his lip, a line forming between his eyebrows. “Well, I guess for being rude on the first day and every day since. I-I admired you greatly for a while, and I didn’t quite know how to show that. Then you so blatantly hated me that I couldn’t find a way to go back on what I’d done and how I acted.”

“I never hated you.” Harry said truthfully, watching Draco as he looked everywhere but at him.

“I didn’t hate you either.”

Harry was silent for a while, listening to the foliage growing in the greenhouses and watching Draco’s face get gradually more strained.

“You were rude to me at the wand shop too.” Harry said finally and Draco grimaced, like he had hoped he had forgotten about that.

“I was eleven, Potter.” He said, rather affronted.

Harry thought for another long moment. “I guess I forgive you. But you need to apologise to Ron and Hermione too. You’ve been awful to both of them.” If Draco really wanted to make amends, then apologising to Ron and Hermione was the least thing he could do.

Draco nodded, a rather frantic look in his eyes. Harry took a bite of bread roll and turned to leave.

“Thanks Malfoy.” He said as a parting comment, still unsure about actually calling him Draco.

Draco lunged forward and caught the smaller boy’s sleeve. “Wait, Harry there’s something else.”

Harry faced him again, and gestured for him to continue. Draco looked even more uncomfortable than beforehand.

“Look, after what happened in Potions the other day…” Draco started, and Harry went to wave him off, but was stopped by Draco grabbing his sleeve again.

The taller boy looked far too sincere and… young. Harry often thought of Draco as something other than a fellow student but he was only 16.

“I like you, Potter. You’re infuriating and annoying but you’re interesting and… I just like you okay?”

Harry tilted his head back and laughed. “Look Draco, that prank isn’t going to work on me twice.”

Draco moved so fast that Harry didn’t even have time to reach for his wand.

“Merlin, Potter.” He muttered and grabbed Harry by his tie, pulling him in hard and crashed their lips together.


End file.
